CANADIAN agricultural giant Viterra has confirmed it will offer a direct-to-mill wool selling option as part of its new consolidated wool business, Viterra Wool.
In a brief statement released last week, Viterra said the company had united its various banners - which comprise of Adelaide Wool Company, Stawool, Wardle Co and ABB Wool Export - under the Viterra wool brand and was committed to strengthening its interactions with its grower customers.
Viterra would not comment on the fundamentals of the new selling option but a spokesperson confirmed the method - still yet to be completely finalised - was one of six wool selling options it had that included auction, direct on-farm, price on result, forward and electronic trading.
“Domestically, we have been very active in South Australia and Western Australia and are currently expanding our business into Victoria,” the spokesman said.
Viterra is known to be concentrating its efforts on wool growers in central, north-west and south-west Victoria.
It has appointed two new wool agents; Greg Edwards based in Bendigo and Adrian Field in Geelong.
Its trading manager, Alister Carr, based also at Bendigo will have a dual wool trading and domestic broker role.
A shift to direct buying might help Viterra compete more strongly in the wool buying market, although Rodwells' wool manager Michael de Kleuver did not expect the consolidation to do much for his company, but welcomed the extra competition in the sales room from Viterra Wool.
“There a number of companies that have forged relationship through (wool) pipeline and this had been going on for some time,” he said, noting the direct-to-mill relationship Rodwells formed with The Merino Company last year.
The re-naming of its wool business came as its grain executive manager Dean McQueen pledged its company’s commitment to strengthening its relationship with growers by modifying its approach to customer service.
Speaking at the recent South Australia No-Till Farmers Association (SANTFA) conference, Mr McQueen said the Canadian company's "country sales structure" would provide growers with locally-based experts, who would establish "a close working relationship with growers and be knowledgeable about all facets of the farming operation".
Mr McQueen said Viterra was eager to ensure growers in Australia and Canada had access to the latest information and technology to enable them to "make the best decisions possible".
The commitment comes as the company undergoes a major facelift over the coming months in its Australian and New Zealand operations, with all ABB Grain warehouses, silos and offices rebranded to Viterra.
The process should be complete by the middle of this year.
Viterra’s wool division was the largest buyer of Australia wool last year, handling 12.5 per cent of the wool exported out of Australia.
It has been among the top five wool buyers in the past three years.
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